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The Best Classic Canadian Butter Tarts

The Best Classic Canadian Butter Tarts. There’s a reason why we have a national obsession with these sweet, buttery, caramel-y tarts. I’ve sampled them in many places across the country and this thick pastry version is my favourite. Don’t do the raisin debate, just leave them out if they are not your thing. Everyone should be able to enjoy them as they like them.

The Best Canadian Butter Tarts

Butter tarts are one of my all time favorite sweet treats and have been for many years. I don’t often make them because, to be absolutely frank, I would not rest until I had eaten all of them!

Canadians love their butter tarts and I have had some fine examples in other parts of the country. I think the nod goes to Quebec for the best I’ve had though.

I can’t tell you the numbers of these I’ve eaten over the years, driving along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River and stopping into little bakeries along the way to sample the local versions of this perfect little pastry. Here is my favorite version.

There is a great deal of debate about whether the filling should be firm or slightly runny. Most butter tart aficionados I know across Canada comedown on the runny side of the debate.

If you prefer the filling firmer, add an additional egg to the mix, and modify the corn syrup and brown sugar amounts as found in the NOTE added to this recipe. You may also want to bake them for just a few minutes longer.

The Best Canadian Butter Tarts

UPDATE May22, 2016: There is a considerable debate and sometimes geographical differences in what the preferred consistency of the centre of a butter tart should be. In a recent poll 60% of people said they preferred a runny centre as opposed to a firmer set one.

The argument for a firmer set centre is that it’s less messy and easier to eat on the go. As with any recipe, I believe you should have them however you like them so I’ve updated the NOTE in this recipe to include instructions to tweak the recipe for a set but still soft and delicious centre. I wouldn’t turn down either one to be honest.

Please note that the photos of the set butter tarts below are made without raisins by request of my son…but lets not start another debate about that! Just get on with making them how you like.

The Best Classic Canadian Butter Tarts - there's a reason why we have a national obsession with these sweet, buttery, caramel-y tarts. I've sampled them in many places across the country and this thick pastry version is my favorite. Don't do the raisin debate, just leave them out if they are not your thing. Everyone should be able to enjoy them as they like them.

Course:
Dessert

Cuisine:
Canadian

Servings: 12large tarts

Author: Barry C. Parsons

Ingredients

For the Pastry

2 ¼cupsflourpastry flour is best to use but all-purpose will do

1tbspbrown sugar

½tspsalt

1/2cupshorteningVery cold and cut in cubes

1/2cupbutterVery cold and cut in cubes

6tbspice waterapproximately, enough to bring the dough together

For the Filling

1/2cuplightly packed brown sugar

1/2cupcorn syrup

1/4cupbuttermelted

1egg

1tspvanilla extract

1/4tspsalt

½cupraisinssubstituting, pecans, walnuts or chocolate chips also make good variations

Instructions

To prepare the pastry

Pulse the cold butter and shortening into the flour sugar and salt using a food processor until the shortening or butter is reduced to pea sized pieces.

Sprinkle the water over the surface and toss with a fork until the water is just incorporated into the dough. Do not over work the dough; handle it only enough so that the dough stays together.

Form the dough into two rounds about an inch thick.

Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge for about a half hour.

Roll out on lightly floured surface. Cut into rounds with 4 inch cutter. Fit into muffin cups. Chill in the fridge or freezer while you prepare the filling. Cold pastry heading into a hot oven will always be flakier.

To make the filling

Combine all filling ingredients except raisins.

Mix well.

Sprinkle raisins in a single layer in the bottom of the pastry lined muffin cups.

Fill 2/3 full with syrup mixture.

Bake on bottom shelf of oven at 425 degrees F for 12 to 15 minutes.

Cool completely on a wire rack and remove tarts from from pans.

Recipe Notes

There is considerable debate about whether the filling in a butter tart should be runny or firm. Preferences vary, especially geographically but if you want a firmer, less runny filling simply add an additional egg, increase the brown sugar to 3/4 cup and decrease the corn syrup to 1/4 cup.

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Reader Interactions

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I can’t get over how flaky the pastry was!! These are waaaay better than the store-bought kind! I made 1/3 pecan tarts for me, 1/3 raisin for my husband, and 1/3 plain for my son – everyone was happy 🙂

Mine always turn out runny…what am I doing wrong. They taste great, crust was easy and turned out perfectly. I know some are made to be runny and some are made to be thicker. Mine run down your chin though! Are these supposed to be that runny?

Oh my gosh YES! We have an adorable little bakery that is world renowned for their large variety of the best butter tarts. Skor, butterscotch chip, Caramilk and peanut butter chocolate are some of my favourites!
I made these last year and found that the insides were just a little too runny (I like runny, gooey butter tarts more than the jelly-type ones), but these were even too runny for me. I’ll try baking them for a few minutes longer to see if that helps. Everything else about them was perfection though! Thanks!

How thin/thick do you roll the dough? My grandmother in Windsor used to make little tarts but I believe hers had pecans in them. Being a not so proficient cook – can anyone advise how to substitute pecans for the raisins? Would that change the cooking time? Thanks!!! I am eager to try these because we lost Grandma’s recipe when she died – she had all her recipes in her head.

Yes my mom used golden brown sugar.She made the best butter tarts.She passed away a I never got her recipe;but this is so close to her tarts,except she put more raisins in hers.I miss my mom so much.everything she did was for her kids.

Hi Brian,
Your email touched me. I lost my Mum too and today I was hunting her butter tart recipe. She never wrote it down either! Lesson to the young ones! Get your Mum to write down her recipes or write them down yourself. You will thank me for this in coming years. My Mum always made her tarts with currants and they were really thick with them not gooey like these. All depends on what your Mum made,right? Anyway as I said at my Mum’s funeral she lived her life for those she loved and those she loved will remember. Sounds like both are mothers were the same kind of ladies.
All the best, and Merry Christmas to you and yours,
Kate
Victoria BC

My grandmother was born in Saskatchewan and made these for her boys all the time! Her version did not have the corn syrup in it, but these take me back to my childhood! Before my Dad passed this was a ritual for gift giving for his birthday, Christmas, Veteran’s Day, etc! Totally awesome and simple recipe to make and share!

I remember these from when we went to Amherstburg (sp?) Ontario (just across the river from Detroit Michigan) to visit my Gramma’s cousins. We always stopped at a bakery in Windsor to get these and when I grew up and the cousins were no longer with us I could not find these anywhere. For whatever reason I never thought to look for a recipe. I am so very excited to find this one and cannot get to the grocery fast enough to get all the ingredients (which are not many). They are so very good whether out of oven warm, room temp or even chilled from refrigerator. How absolutely wonderful I can make these now for my grandchildren. Thank you so much. I believe I found this on a Pinterest em I just got at my office today. Oh Happy Day Oh Happy Day!!!!!!
Maggie in Michigan

Hi there – I have made these butter tarts a few times now and they are to die for – just amazing – I love them runny. I have two questions: 1) Can I make the filling and keep it in the fridge until I am ready to fill and bake? 2) Can I freeze the butter tarts filled? Thanks!

Some of my older cheesecake recipes do need info updated. Yes, you can use the bain marie method for any cheesecake recipe.Some of my older cheesecake recipes do need info updated. Yes, you can use the bain marie method for any cheesecake recipe.

I prefer the less gooey ones, although if no choice I would not say no, ever. We used to get giant sized ones at a local restaurant almost plate size and extremely runny.

Butter tarts are the only thing I ever made where the crust came out good, even though same one I used for pie crust. So now, being also a bit lazy, I make butter tart bars instead. Usually with both raisins and walnuts. Brown sugar, no corn syrup.

They never keep longer than a day though. Too many butter tart lovers here. (Carleton Place, Ontario)

Hi I haven’t actually tried these yet, but I can tell by looking at the picture they’ll be great. I struggle with getting mine gooey enough so thanks for the tip! Just wondering if you’ve ever made them with maple syrup? Does it need to be corn syrup to maintain the gooey-ness?? Also I’ve seen some recipes with about a tablespoon of vinegar added, what is that purpose ( maybe just cuts the sweetness a bit…?). Looking forward to making these for our ladies golf trip!

You sure can use maple syrup in place of corn syrup, but you need to boil and reduce the maple syrup first to the consistency of corn syrup. (Remembering that it thickens even more as it cools again).
Another way to get the maple flavour in the tart is to simmer the raisins in syrup before placing in the tarts.

I made these with coconut oil instead of the shortening (only used 1/3 cup instead of 1/2 cup) and maple syrup instead of the corn syrup, as we can’t get golden corn syrup in Australia. They were wonderful! I’m not normally a fan of thick pastry but this was really nice and flaky, not a hard, crumbly type of pastry. Brought me straight back to our holidays in Canada.

The food theme of tonight’s election party (here in US) is “bring something from the country you plan to move to if your candidate loses”. Canada is my choice, so I’m bringing butter tarts. I tested this recipe a few days ago (not being much of a cook). The tarts looked exactly like the photo above — and earned raves from those who ate them! I used a boxed pie crust mix; turned out flaky and delicious. The combination of the flaky crust and the rich caramel-y filling was perfectly in proportion. This is a recipe I will use again and again. Fingers crossed that the ones in the oven today turn out as good as last Saturday’s!

Thanks!! I just pulled them out of the oven… smells so good! I tried the light syrup as I didn’t see your message until now. (Fingers crossed that they still taste yummy!😊) I’m a big fan of your recipes… just got you Christmas cookbook from Amazon. So thank you for sharing all these treasures…. this is one very happy Newfie who’s been living in the US for the last 25 years and LOVE these tastes from home. ❤️

What would be the best steps to modify this recipe to use mini muffin pans instead of full-sized muffins? I’d like to make bite-sized tarts for the workplace that will reduce the risk of drips onto clothes, computers, etc.

So going to try this butter tart recipe. I just have a guestion could I use just butter for my pastry? I don’t have any shortening. If I had to buy shortening, do you mean like Tenderflake? I love cooking and always make lots of butter tarts at Christmas, but pastry has never being my forte. Needless to say I always bought ready made shells. The recipe that I’ve used for years only called for white sugar! I think this one would not be as sweet? Which is exactly what I am looking for.
Thanks waiting to hear from you,
CINDY

My mum used to freeze them when we were kids; we’d sneak them out of the freezer…They are awesome semi thawed! The texture is gooey and chewy! And now that I’m living in Australia it’s a nice cool treat!!

Great recipe!
I place 1 inch wide by 5 inch long strips of parchment paper in the muffin cup under the pastry. Then place in the freezer before filling and baking. Makes it super easy to remove the butter tarts.

I made these today and I don’t know what I did wrong but I had to throw them out because the dough disintegrated in the oven. They became like a mushy sand when I scooped them out of the muffin tin. What did I do wrong? The dough seemed really wet before I even added any ice water too…. I followed measurements accurately. …. I wonder if my flour was bad….. Or perhaps I mixed the butter too long in the food processor? Oy.

I don’t understand how your dough could possibly be wet, even before you added water. That’s practically impossible if you are using cold butter as instructed. You didn’t use some horrible butter substitute did you?

I ended up remaking them the same day because it was driving me nuts as to why they turned out like that lol. I think what happened the first time was that I over pulsed them wayyy too much in the processor so that the cold butter was no longer in chunks. So the dough looked more like a cookie dough. Also, I think my flour had gone bad. It was an old unopened bag but it hadn’t expired yet. Anyways, the 2nd time I made it I used a pastry cutter and my hands to make the butter and flour (bought new flour) combo and then added the water to that and they turned out like a tart should lol. So I was too heavy handed with the processor originally, and I think my flour was bad.

My mom was of French Canadian descent and made butter tarts that were a mouthful of sweetness. She used currants, no raisins or walnuts or pecans. I can’t say I really remember corn syrup in her recipe. We loved them runny too!!! 💕💕

WOW, my first time eating butter tarts, and these were so delicious!!! I was looking for a recipe for brown sugar tarts and all these Canadian butter tarts popped up. I made some of them with chocolate chips and walnuts and they were good, but I prefer the oozing, gooey plain ones! I used a tart tamper on a smooth little ball of dough in a small tart pan that made the most perfect cup for the filling. Next time I may try rolling them out, but this made the process so simple and anytime I can simplify a process, I’m happy. I used the exact recipe for your dough with both butter and shortening and it was so delicate and flaky. Thank you for your recipe!!!!

Just came across this recipe and I am wanting to try it for a baking night with friends! I was wondering how many mini tarts this recipe yields? I am supposed to make 54 treats! Thanks and they sound super yummy 🙂

Think I read somewhere you could get 18. I made 13 with a tamper (instead of rolling circles) and crust was thick and flaky and yummy, with only a small ball of dough left over. Next time I’ll tamp with only small amount of dough so crust is thinner. I plan to divide dough into 18 balls. If you make this recipe three times – you’ll have exactly 54 mini tarts!!!! Perfect. I made my dough in small food processor. You can get tamper and mini-tart pans from Amazon.

My son’s love buttertarts….i try different recipes….this sounds good
I made crust this evening…to refrigerate…used bit of gingerale instead of water
And shortening…fingers crossed…i don’t make pie crust that often and it’s hit and miss
Use raisins and probably maple syrup…I just cut back on it and add bit more golden sugar and butter
Thanks Barry for the recipes

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Hi, I'm Barry. I'm Dad to 2 amazing kids, author of 3 best-selling cookbooks, a freelance food writer & full time blogger. My lifetime love of cooking & baking has led me to share over 1600 recipes on this blog over the last 10 years. Come back often, there's always great new food & recipes coming out of my St. John's, Newfoundland kitchen!

Real Food Recipes, For Real People

Sign up for our free newsletter to never miss any of the new recipes from my family's kitchen. Get seasonal cooking & baking suggestions, giveaway alerts, PLUS recipe round-ups for holidays and occasions too!

Sign up for our free newsletter to never miss any of the new recipes from my family's kitchen. Get seasonal cooking & baking suggestions, giveaway alerts, PLUS recipe round-ups for holidays and occasions too!